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Even worked on the TransAlaska Pipeline construction in 1974-75 (as a secretary, but living in a line camp).
Oil and gas prices have been manipulated with precision ever since fossil fuels became our "choice" for automobiles. It's always been highly political and not connected to market forces in a normal way in this country.
If the U.S. had been more practical historically (like Europe) with regard to pricing of our "petrol," we might not be in such a bind as we are now. In so many ways, that would have affected how we the driving public behaved in this regard, from what sorts of vehicles we chose to buy and therefore demanded from Detroit to the way and extent to which we relied on our private cars.
Not to mention the many other petroleum-based products we have bought up massively and tossed into landfills and elsewhere, where they'll be for centuries....
I remember when my great-uncle and -aunt who were emigres to America vacationed in their native Germany in the mid-late 1970's, they sent postcards talking about gasoline being fifty cents a gallon at the pump there, and we were all shocked! It was still less than half that here -- after the 1973 OPEC embargo eased and the "free market" here moved gasoline prices waaay back down, that is.
Even that major red flag -- the '73 oil embargo -- didn't wake people up, really. Just pissed off the public, kicked them in line (literally), and paved the way for politicians in DC to remove all obstacles holding up construction of the Alaska Pipeline.
Ever notice that the environmental movement was able to stall that project for SEVEN YEARS? ... until the '73 embargo and suddenly who cared about the caribou? Let's build that damn pipeline to relieve our domestic oil situation!
Hah! Fat lot of good THAT did!
The Seven Sisters of Big Oil and their progeny have always used gasoline pricing to benefit them and provide the best bottom lines they could get, while at the same time encouraging reckless fuel use and lax hazardous waste policies. They made gas cheap to get us to expect that and become wasteful (which made them rich) and then tightened the spigot when it helped their cause (and made them richer). They're still doing all these things and won't stop until WE change our behavior -- which most people won't until they MUST, and that, as some have said, will almost certainly be too late.
IMO, it is already way too late. The damage and the future are "done."
We can rightly blame Big Oil operations for dirty, misleading, and heedless tactics and strategies, but we also have to blame ourselves for our longlived foolishness on this score, as on so many others.
I strongly suspect most DUers have been on the forefront of the small percentage of farsighted people; but as the reponses above indicate, MOST Americans have played along as willing dupes and extravagant, thoughtless consumers. Folks would only get involved and angry if they could not get all the gas they wanted to waste, pollute all they wanted to, and to hell with those nutty environmentalists and others who saw the hard facts for what they were and advised caution and sensible policies, practices, and pricing.
In Germany in the 1970's, over HALF of that $.50/gal for gas was for taxes, which made perfect sense then and I believe remains the case in most of Europe today. Here, Big Oil companies not only don't have to pay a fair tax rate but receive corporate welfare! It's always been insane, political, and predatory.
And such practices were destined certainly from the start to lead to the crisis times we're living in now. Every policy our govt puts in place in this arena is disastrous and futile -- and I feel sure the pols always knew that very well. After all, as for most well-off people, rapid hikes to very expensive gasoline don't affect them personally.
And it's their PERSONAL benefit -- NOT the good of U.S. citizens and especially the middle class and poor who suffer most, and not even the overall economic future for our country -- that shapes their decisions in government.
So what's wrong with this picture? Try, "just about EVERYTHING!"
For the poor like me and so many others, our cars have been "running on fumes" for years now, so obviously we can't go far, period. In ANY sense.
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